So just wait for a while to see proper coastlines in the mapnik layer.

Do you know that it's possible to load up-to-date OSM maps to your Garmin such that if you have already uploaded your ways, you can see the streets on your Garmin and you don't have to resort to looking at traces to figure out what has been mapped already?

If you are using Potlatch (i.e. the edit tab), your changes are saved directly to the database though it'll take while before your changes make their way to the map.

It's usually a good idea to wait patiently for a good fix (~10 sats) before starting to walk around. And another thing is that it's often pretty hard to get a proper track in woods.

OpenStreetMap doesn't currently pay for any of its aerial images. The current images are either public domain Landsat images which are of low resolution but cover the whole world and then there are the Yahoo photos which include high resolution images for big cities and can be used for tracing.

Nice story. But beware, mapping can be addictive...